homesick bread
by callmesandy
Summary: Somehow Henry transfers his curse to Jo.
notes: for the trope bingo square: in another's man shoes. The image of the mother dying and only the baby and umbilical cord left comes from Angel, s3. Opening quote and title from the poem February 12 2010 by David Bartone. Thanks to the JAM!

 _Oh I'm so home all I do is roll the street,_  
 _eat a delicious bite, it's homesick bread, and_  
 _something old's whipped up and spread on._

Jo gagged at the taste in her mouth, the water surrounding her but she swam to shore. Henry was waiting for her, looking thrilled. "I want a divorce," she said.

"This is wonderful," Henry said.

"Because I'm the one who doesn't die now?" She tried to get dry with the towel Henry had given her. Then she put on the clothes he'd brought with him. "That river is disgusting. I need ten showers when we get home."

"Well, you must know that socially, no one really looks twice at men with significantly younger women so I am happy about that in a shallow way," Henry said. "And yes, I might be overly enthusiastic about this, but somehow my curse has been transferred. Jo, you must know, if I could have chosen someone to live forever, I would have chosen you."

"That would be sweeter if you didn't call it a curse," Jo said. They got in the car and Henry turned up the heat. "I'm not excited you could die at any time."

"As can anyone," Henry said. "I will absolutely be more careful now. But again, as the husband of a police officer, knowing you will come back to life should you die, I'm very happy."

"I'm not," Jo said.

xxx

"Well," Abe said. "I think this is one time the so-called curse worked out pretty well."

Jo held her baby boy, watching him sleep. He'd just fed and now he was sleeping. A perfect miracle. She said, "Henry is pretty traumatized."

"It sounds traumatic. The two of you, in a car crash, you go into labor and hemorrhage, and then bam," Abe said. He whispered the bam. "You're gone in a flash and nothing is left but the umbilical cord and my baby brother."

"I'm just glad I can still breastfeed," Jo said. "I mean, it's weird, right? That I come back alive, but still like I've just given birth. I would not have minded if I lost all the baby weight that way."

"It works out well for bringing you to the hospital with no questions asked," Abe said. He looked over at Henry, asleep in the chair by Jo's bed. "You know, maybe the whole come back to life only heals what kills you."

"I'm not testing this," Jo said.

Henry came awake with a start, saying, "Jo," in distress.

Abe went over and patted his back. "It's okay, Pops, don't worry."

Henry came over to the bed and delicately touched his baby son's head. "And you are both okay."

"Just like three hours ago," Jo said. She looked at Henry. "We gave you a gray hair," she said.

Henry went into the bathroom attached to the hospital room. "I have a gray hair!"

"It's not that exciting," Abe said.

"I guess I won't ever, until I get struck by lightning while holding someone's hand and during a freak alignment of the planets and whatever else happened to transfer the curse," Jo said. "Okay, I'm not upset about that."

"You will be," Henry said, coming back into the room.

xxx

"I've only died five times and I'm already sick of it," Jo said.

"I was sick of it much sooner," Henry said. They were talking quietly while Bram slept between them. He was a year old but it worked for them, having their baby with them.

"Not a contest," Jo said. "You know, we should trade off. Ten year from now, you take the curse back, then I take it ten after that and so on and so on."

"That makes a twisted sort of sense, but we don't understand how the first transfer worked," Henry said. "I don't want to do anything that would get you killed. Or me, I suppose, now that that is on the table."

"You can't get used to it," Jo said, smiling. "You still have to remember you're growing old and can't walk into bullets."

"I do forget sometimes," Henry said. "But I don't forget how grateful I am that I know you are safe."

"You're so sweet," Jo said. "We should make another baby."

"We should," he said. He kissed her and then settled back on his side of the bed. "Maybe in the morning."

"You are getting old," Jo said.

xxx

Jo got shot by a criminal, and she knew it was the wrong place to be shot. She was on the street, everyone could see her. She pressed her hand to the wound. She hit the panic button she and Henry had set up. She staggered away from the ATM camera and into a blind spot. She fell to the ground.

Mike, goddamnit, Mike came into her view, saying, "Jo, Jo, Jo."

Then she saw the flash and she was coming up for air in the river. It was still disgusting. She swam to shore. Henry was there. He said, "Hello, sweetheart."

She dried off and got dressed. She said, "Mike saw me."

"Yes, I believe he did. He called me as I was driving over to say, oddly, I should be picking you up from the river." Henry smiled. "He's a smart man."

"Smarter than me," Jo said, frowning. "How did he figure us out?"

"Astonishing powers of observation," Mike said. He'd walked over from his car. "Don't worry, I covered for you."

"Thanks," Jo said. "I'm sorry."

"It's insane," Mike said. "But it's nice to know you're not going down in the line of duty."

It turned out, as Henry never stopped reminding her, Jo was not nearly as good at dying discreetly as Henry was. "You had a lot longer to figure it out before there were cameras and body cams," Jo said.

"Detective Hanson needed neither to figure out your secret," Henry said. "I'm glad he knows."

"But you love that I needed bread crumbs from Adam to figure it out," Jo said.

"I don't love that chain of circumstances at all," Henry said. "But I am going to enjoy needling you about it since you are so disgruntled by not being as good a Detective as your partner."

"Jerk," she said.

Mike said he'd had help from Lucas. "Gosh, Henry, you didn't realize your own assistant ME knew your secret?"

"Needling accepted," Henry said.

Lucas was excited about doing research into the unknown to figure out what had happened. "You say it transferred? Are we sure Henry can die?"

"We're not testing," Jo said. "Besides, he's aging. He has wrinkles and gray hairs."

"Looks good on you," Lucas said. "Very distinguished."

"Thank you," Henry said. "No one seems to have noticed Jo hasn't aged in the past three years."

"I thought it was some make up thing," Mike said. "Women have skills we men don't."

"Not necessarily," Lucas said. "There are some pretty skilled male make up artists and designers. Just to stand up for my fellow men."

Xxx

Mike always said, "You go first, Jo," which she tried not to be too upset about.

She died five times going in first, thanks to Lucas and Mike and Henry, no one knew. She was less upset when Mike suggested she go first after the fifth time. He had two kids and a wife who loved him, she would be back the next day.

Lucas was diagnosed with cancer. Rare, inoperable, incurable cancer. Henry went quietly crazy in his basement, trying to see if he could figure out a cure. Mike and Abraham started researching how Henry had transferred his curse to Jo.

So during an alignment of the moon and something else (Jo wasn't completely sure), she stood on a very specific hill (Abraham had been in charge of that) with an antique weapon, waiting for lightning. Lucas looked like hell, sitting on the ground next to her. Henry had given him a shot of something so he stayed awake.

Lucas said, "If this doesn't work, you'll name number 2 after me, right?"

"Absolutely," Jo said. "If it's a girl, we'll make it her middle name."

"Lucas could be a girl's name," Lucas said. "A really cool girl. Like you and Henry would have."

"Maybe," Jo said, shrugging.

The lightning hit before her next breath, traveling from her weapon and arching to Lucas. He fell down dead. She gasped, aching from the burn on her hand, and then, finally, a white light suffused Lucas.

"It worked, Abe, it worked!" Mike shouted into his phone. Abe had gotten the short straw of river duty. Five minutes later, they heard Lucas saying, "WOOOhoo!" Through Abe's phone. They cheered on their end.

Xxx

"I didn't get too used to it," Jo said. "It's not hard to go back to living with death."

"Maybe now that we've figured some of the transfer, we can try it again someday," Henry said.

"You're saying you miss it?" Abe laughed as he sat down. He was in his 80s now, he sat down a lot more.

"I thought more of you," Henry said.

"Don't want it," Abe said. "I bet I'll still last another 15 or so years and I won't have to any swimming in the river."

"I don't want it, either," Jo said.

"So Bram gets it then," Henry said.

Abe and Jo nodded. Jo said, "Until this one comes along," she patted her tummy which was just starting to swell. She was almost certain they'd conceived this one in their celebration of Lucas's survival. "Then we find out how to have Bram and Lulu trade it off."

Henry said, "I agree. Not with the name Lulu, though."

"It'll grow on you," Jo said.


End file.
